Charcoal.

Liquid charcoal is the one thing (well maybe one of two or three things) that I consider essential to my medicine chest. I know many people have a lot more in theirs but I can't afford all those meds which I may not use before they expire. However I have used activated charcoal at least two times to date and it gives you something to do.

On the downside you need 4-8 bottles for goats my size. Today I only had 1.5 but I gave Merry all of that after he started acting strangely after our walk today on which he ate some bittersweet.... And he seems to be doing better now.

What I keep thinking about is that I'm not really sure that it was the bittersweet. We got back and he went into the stall, lay down and was breathing strangely. He wouldn't put weight on his front left leg when he stood up briefly again and I was freaking out. We called the vet and talked to her. She was great. We are now just monitoring as Merry has improved tremendously... However back to what I was saying at the beginning of the paragraph... I almost wonder if his breathing was messed up because i pulled the wrong way with the piece of rope I was leading him with when we came in... or if it got stuck or something. It doesn't seem like it could be that because I really wasn't using that much pressure... but it is just something I've been thinking about... One more reason not to use a collar... (in my opinion)

Anyway I'm very tired now (not sure why but it is a fact) So good night!
M.

p.s. I also strongly suggest buying a 60 cc catheter tip syringe from your vet. The one I had made it a lot easier to get the charcoal down him. It was still awful... but at least not as bad as it might have been.

Making and adjusting halters

I originally intended to do a video of this subject but our camera is out of batteries and I don't have a tripod so for the sake of making something actually happen here goes.
On the right is my attempt at color coded depictions of halters. The length between knots isn't accurate or to scale but they will serve their purpose. The image on the left that is black with colored knots will for the purpose  of this post be referred to image A. The one on the right with the red and blue string is just to give you an idea about where the strings are going.
Let's start with making halters. There are also some documents on my website in the documents section The one that says "how_to_tie_a_rope_halter" has decent directions. The knots in the image in that document that are labeled 1-5 in that document are, in my image, the two red ones, the green, blue, and pink. Use the fiador knot (shown in the document) for the dark purple one.
I think I may have gotten off track a bit. Step by step. Here goes:

1. Take your piece of string (I advise starting with about 15'), fin the middle and on either side of that point tie two normal, overhand, pretzel knots about 5-6" apart (for standard goats)
2. Line those two knots up with each other and go down about three inches (more if you are just learning) and start to tie the fiador knot. (in the document) It will probably end up with really big loops, uneven ends etc. Don't worry! Just tighten it up and look admiringly at it for a few moments.
3. Now it is time to adjust the nose part. In my opinion the only/safest way to adjust a knot is carefully, one string at a time, keeping every other bit of the knot as tight as possible at all times. Keeping this in mind, make your halter face you with the fiador knot at the bottom. starting at one of the red knots take up any slack between the red knot and the purple/fiador except for about 3" and carefully feed it through the fiador knot until it comes out at the bottom. Tighten the knot. Do the same on the other side. The nose piece should fit as described in the previous post.
4. Now your loops under the nose are probably too large. Time to fix that. Focus on one loop at a time. As you will see a loop consists of the string coming out of the fiador knot (originally from the nose piece) turning around, going back in, and coming out as a loose end. You want all the slack in your loops to go into the loose end rather than back into the nose. Start by tracing each string coming out of the fiador knot back to it's origin. I still haven't figured a short cut to this. When you have found the one that ends up as a loose end feed the slack after it and pull the knot tight leaving a loop about an inch long under the knot. Do the same with the other loop. The hard part is pretty much done so pat yourself on the back and have a cookie. :)
5. Now for the rest of your halter. Take the two loose ends from the fiador and tie the green knot as a double-overhand (instructions in the documents folder on my site) about 2-3" down the rope from the fiador. If you aren't worried about nice round knots/aesthetics you could just hold them together and tie an overhand/pretzel knot. In my experience in tying halters I find that I generally make this section too long so err on the side of a tad shorter than whatever you measure.  
6. Now we find that two ropes diverge in a halter and you must initially take the one that takes a really long time to tie. In other words. Coming out of your green knot will be two strings. One (when facing you) will be on the right and the other in the left. If you want a halter that has a tie in the conventional place (the left of the goat) take the right string and go up about 4" and tie a double-overhand knot (pink knot). This time you will be tying the first part as shown in the document and then turning around and coming back. The loop formed should be about an inch long.
7. Now for the first cheek piece. From the pink knot you just tied you go to one of the original centered pretzel knots (red). Use this knot as the first part of a double-overhand and thread your rope through as the other. Proceed to the other red knot and repeat. You're almost there!
8. Finally it is time to take that other rope that you abandoned back in step six and tie it and the end you have been using together in a double-overhand (blue knot).
9. Now you just have to cut these two ropes off about 1.5' away from the knot ( If you don't have enough of one rope you will have to thread some of the one you do have enough of back all the way through the halter.) and singe/sew them together.

Congratulations! You have a halter!

If you already have a halter but are trying to adjust it to fit a smaller goat start at the nose band as described in the "Making" section and feed slack rope through to the loops under the fiador. You will have to move the red knot up so they are centered on the nose (Space between two red knots = the two spaces between each red knot and the fiador combined.) Then all you have to do is keep following the rope taking out slack between each knot and making sure each knot is tight before you go on. If the end of the ropes are already singed you'll probably have to cut them even again and re-sew them. I would never try and adjust a halter to fit a bigger goat. Save it for the next baby and just make another. It is a lot simpler in the long run. The same applies with a halter for a roman-nosed goat. Save yourself the hassle and just make a new one.

I use this rope and purchase it from a local store for less than it is sold online. I think 3mm is a good size for a goat  so as long as it isn't much bigger anything should work. just make sure it isn't too stiff or rough.

If after reading all of this the prospect of making a halter is too daunting, you can't find any rope, or you just need one sooner than you can get around to making one I do sell them for about $8 each with two dollars shipping (and possibly a discount if you get more than two.) E-mail me if you are interested.
2 creeks goats "at" gmail . com (remove all the spaces)
M.
p.s. I will attempt a video of this as soon as I can but I'm not sure when that will be.

Halters and Fitting them

As you may have gathered I believe firmly in rope halters. My goats are comfortable in them and yet will also respect them easily. However they won't work if they don't fit. Too large and they might slip down and end up in the goat's mouth. Too small and they are painful.

The image on the right illustrates the basic placement for a halter. The top image, all in blue, depicts a well fitting halter. Maybe a bit loose but not much (and it's the computer's fault not mine). The second head has a side piece that is too long and results in a nose piece that sits too low on the cartilage of the nose and may inhibit breathing. The third photo also has a long cheek piece which in this case results in the strap behind the ear slipping back. If this strap were to slip too far it would hold the head in a very uncomfortable position. Even with a well fitting halter this piece can occasionally slip down so be sure when playing with your goat that you are aware of your equipment and what it is doing and how it is working at all times.

On one of my goat groups someone recently asked about fitting halters to Boers with extreme roman noses.  To the left is a photo, if not of a Boer, of a roman nose. There seems to me to be no way you could get a halter made for dish nosed goats to fit a roman nose. Firstly the nose band needs to be significantly larger than for, say, a Saanen of the same size. Then also the distance from the behind- the-ear band to the nose band on both the side (A) and below (B) would, I imagine, be significantly shorter. I might also, now I am looking at this image more, more the connection of "A" to the nose band up a bit (not so much as to interfere with the eye but a little bit more to hold the nose band more securely.) Please note that I've never tried making a halter for a roman nosed goat so all this is just an educated guess... if you have a roman nosed goat you want a halter for I'd love to either make a halter for you or give you any guidance you wanted to to modify the instructions for a normal halter for a Boer.

Another thing I started thinking about when I was looking at photos of roman nosed boers online is that the bucks often have serious dew laps! I wonder how one could accommodate these in making a halter!?
Any thoughts?

Also in working on my website, Margaret Shackles, a friend/mentor of mine suggested I add a book section under resources. This is, of course, an excellent idea but I need your help to come up with useful, informative, even just amusing goat books you have and love! You can just send me the names or, even better, add a little review with information on why this book is useful.

Thanks,
M.

I promise...

...that I will post something interesting and informative soon. My excuse is that I've been rather busy what with the PSAT this morning and intake for Animal Compassion Network this evening. Intake (for me) consists of holding cats/kittens while Margee, a very nice vet who I met this summer, draws blood, gives vaccines, de-worms and microchips them. Everyone there is really nice.

Anyway I've been doing school and that all day and I still haven't finished all the chemistry I need to but never mind... I'm too tired so here is a photo of our dog before we adopted her. :)

Good night,
Miranda

Too much energy?

I have been communicating with GoatSong ever since she got a halter from me (and it has been a great conversation.) In a recent e-mail she asked:

"Heidi despises being still, and I have a really hard time getting her to do things simply because she wants to keep moving! Like when you want to work on rhythmic pressure and getting them to yield their hindquarters, there’s no time to try and get Heidi to do that, as she is already walking away before you can even start! Any suggestions on how to apply some brakes to this gal?"

I thought there might be someone out there who was interested in my response so here it is:

"Re: standing still.... goodness... Merry has that problem sometimes... but I think he is more nervous than bored. I think I'd just be a lot more energetic and faster. What one Parelli thing I have says about Left Brain Extroverts (LBEs) which is I think what Heidi is, is

DO

• teach her something new at least once a week (probable more)
• Keep sessions active interesting and playful. use obstacles, become more imaginative ad when he's really playful, increase the pace and get him to do more.
• Mischief is her middle name; so give him things to do with that busy mind and mouth. This horse loves to play trick on you, so why not teach her some tricks on purpose?
• Use long lines- Give her room to move.
• praise a lot, have fun, lots of scratches and smiles she likes to have fun.

Don't

• Bore her with endless, mindless repetition. She is smart! When you know she's got it (even just a little bit) move on. You can always come back to it and add polish little by little.
• Slow calm riding (or playing) is not really this goat's dream. She wants to be active, go somewhere.
• Punish her (I know you know this one though)

So being more specific..... with the hind-quarters maybe give her a better visual/feel-able about where you want her front feet to stay and break up working on that with jumping/running/weaving etc. something active.

For instance. Teach her to put her from feet on a pedestal (preferably round maybe an old tire with the center filled with dirt.) Then you can do something like jump a jump, run between two poles, and then put her front feet on the  pedestal and yield her hindquarters 1 step then stop doing that and go immediately on to something else. Don't let her drag you along. You go as fast/faster than she wants to go and for longer (but in a productive interesting way.).... if you see what I mean.

With the driving game (rhythmic pressure) I'd ask her to do more faster. Don't take as long for your phases. Of course it is a fine line between going fast enough to make it interesting and going to fast and dreadfully confusing her. Hopefully that helps you a bit.... gives you some ideas to try....let me know how it works! I've never personally had to deal with this so these are just ideas... :)"

hope you found that interesting/informative. Up next! Haltering and halter fitting.

M.

Home again Home again...

Well the fair was fun, exhausting, chaotic... But at least we made quite a few kiddos happy. Unfortunately I wasn't able to play with the other goats... I started to but it was at the end of the day and they were a lot more skittish than when I went down last week... so I let them be. Never mind....

It was a fun time though. Perfect weather, a good number of people, and pulp from apple juicing (to Merry's joy.) If you had been there you might periodically seen a goat, harnessed to a cart with a small child in it barreling down between the vendors to come to a grinding halt in front of the apple stand. It wasn't quite as out of control as it sounds. I was careful of the small ones. Actually, one of the first kids to have this experience called out to me as we were running "slow down slow down! you'll hurt the little house!" (the little house was a doll's house set up point out sustainability issues.)

What was really cool was talking to a man who had his two Suffolk Draft horses and was doing a logging demo. They were gorgeous and he also gave me a few tips on logging with goats! I hope to try it sometime in the near future.

More photos to follow when I get them....
M.

Coming Soon!!!

I'm going to the fair this weekend. To be more precise the True Nature Country Fair and I will be giving cart rides and doing a goat care and training demonstration. What this means is that I will get to play with an on site goat who I doubt has ever had a halter on! I'll video tape it and share the footage so you can glean some ideas and take note of all the terrible mistakes I make and avoid them. The goats there are Boers (and big ones) so I will also get to try playing with long eared goats. I expect it to be a good deal more difficult as the messages they are sending me will be subtler... like trying to hear a whisper after having my boys yell at me constantly :) However I'm sure it will all be very fun. I'm going down with the whole family as well as two friends from California who have started a garden here in Asheville. (see their blog http://citysecret.wordpress.com/ )

Apart from thinking about goats I've been playing with Kip (our dog), splitting wood, and doing school work. It's really very interesting... Have you heard of bioluminescent algae? See a video here. It is thought that this response (of lighting up when disturbed) might have evolved as a response to predators which tried to eat the algae and that the algae light up to attract fish to eat the predators!

Anyway enough of algae. "Talk" to you after the fair!
M.

Rhythmic pressure.

As touched on in the previous post I use rhythmic pressure when I'm at a distance from a goat. I envision it a sending little "waves of energy" at a part of a goat to get them to move. Of course if they don't listen to the waves then they will get tapped. I think this method is probably the hardest to explain to people and differentiate from just whipping/smacking the goat (which you obviously don't want to do). The difference is, of course in the phases. These are slightly different depending on what you are doing.

If you are asking the goat to yield their hindquarters using rhythmic pressure the first phase is that of looking at and focusing your energy on the point in between the belly and the hind leg. Then, still focusing on that spot I will start waving my hands a little and click my fingers. I will continue to do this making my actions gradually bigger and closer to the goat and the point I want to move until I'm touching them and continue until they move.

If you want to ask your goat to go forwards using rhythmic pressure the phases are similar. Standing at the goat's shoulder with you body facing diagonally and holding the lead rope in the hand farthest from them point forwards and bring up your "life." This essentially means that you are saying " Ok, time to go, I'm the leader and I think we should go this way." If they don't move, and they probably won't, raise you other hand (still keeping the lead rope in front) and start waving and clicking. Proceed as described above until the goat moves forwards. Also, at least when you are starting, you should be putting some constant and forwards pressure on the halter.

I'm afraid I haven't explained it very well but here are some things to try and I promise that I will get a video soon:

1. Yield hindquarters using rhythmic pressure (from both sides)
2. Travel from point A to point B.

Hopefully this gives you some things to try.
M.
p.s. I'd love to hear any feedback you had on what is good and what isn't. You can either comment on this blog or e-mail me at 2creeksgoats "at" gmail.com.